Wine and Barbecue - Guest Post

You know, there's a lot of folks out there that think the best thing to drink with barbecue is an ice cold beer, and I have to admit that, in the heat of summer, doing an afternoon burger and weenie roast, in the park with a side of beans and corn, a frosty brew or ten, is just the ticket.

But, if you barbecue for dinner at your house, as often as I do at mine, and you're more of the metropolitan sort, I'll bet you enjoy some wine with your barbecue.  Seems a lot of people do.  That got me into a discussion with a purveyor of fine wines that I've known for...a long time, and I hounded him about attacking the subject in the written word, so I could add it to my blog.

Well, he finally agreed and I even got him to start his own blog.  His name is Pat Broderick, affectionately known as Pat, The Wine Guy, and this is the first post on his blog:

Initially it seemed a simple question, but as I started to formulate an answer it dawned on me that there is no simple response.

First, one must consider the different regional styles of barbecue: Carolina, Memphis, Texas and Kansas City, not to ignore the International flare of Brazilian churrasco, Argentine, Spanish , Asian and on and on.  All regions have unique aspects in rub, sauce, preparation and presentation, as well as certain factors in common.

Second, there is the base protein to consider: beef, pork and poultry; but the genre needs to be expanded to include the fruits of the sea and the sportsman's take of venison, wild fowl and game.

Third, you need to consider the most complex factor: the ambiance and the subjective nature of this question has to take into consideration; the time, place and people in the equation.

My initial approach to understanding wines was to learn the different regions, so, taking a similar tack with the regional styles should, in my opinion, lead to the inclusion of the other pertinent factors, hopefully with some final conclusion to sure-bet wines that enhance the barbecue experience.  It is difficult to spend over seventeen years as a fine wine consultant without developing an affinity for fine food as well, and my girth is testament to that!

In subsequent posts I will make an effort to share my insights on this topic and, hopefully, provide some views that will prove thought provoking and helpful in enhancing your enjoyment of fine wine and fine barbecue, and since this is an interactive experience, with the barbecue season fast approaching, I welcome your comments as I wend my way through this great and ever-broadening topic.

We've talked about it, and I do believe he's going to delve into his oenophilic thoughts, starting with Kansas City Barbecue.  My taste buds are already smackin'!

Pat is a great resource, working for Wine Shippers and if you want to follow him, you can do it at Pat,The Wine Guy or you can call him direct at 308-338-0006 or you can email him.  He won't bite, he doesn't sell you, and he doesn't call you when you don't want him to.  That's probably the reason we've been buddies for so many years...and yes, I even buy wine from him once in a while, too!

Grandville's Mardis Gras

Well, folks, it's been a little over a month and the LinkedIn group I'm moderating, Gourmet BBQ, has taken an interesting shape. With over a hundred members from around the globe, I'm gaining some great perspective, not only on the world-view of barbecue, but also on restaurant owners, bbq chefs and grill masters, suppliers, accessory and spice purveyors,  smoker and grill manufacturers, competition grill master events, fuel merchants, rubs, sauces, skewers and even wines!

I had no idea that the group would grow as quickly or cover such a diverse range of topics, or that I would be able to help so many people in getting their ideas and products in front of a new and expanding audience!  I made a couple of new friends, right off the bat, in Steve Gerst from Grandville's BBQ Jams, up in Washington, and a BBQ Master, Ken Fisher, author of Date Night Doin's, in Southern California, who does a lot of cooking with Steve's sauces.  Even made a little video for Steve, 'cuz he sent me some sauce, er...jam, so I thought his brand needed to have something that jammed!  Have a look at it here:

(Ken liked it so much,  I had to promise to make him one, too, which will appear in a later post, I'm sure.)

Anyway, Steve sent me a selection of his jams, which run from the Original Spicy to Extra Spicy, with Mild, Cajun, Pineapple and Ginger, in between.  Steve bills these as the "only bbq jams on the planet", and I reckon he's about right on that point!  I promised Steve I'd use them at an upcoming event and get some reactions for him, and maybe even blog about them if he didn't mind.  Well, he didn't.

I did a big ol' Cajun style barbecue for Mardi Gras, using three of his sauces (Original, Cajun and Extra Spicy) on boneless beef ribs, a couple of different spicy sausages, and country style pork ribs, served with red beans and rice, cornbread and some creole sides, different folks brought.  Drink of the evening was a choice between a Hurricane and a Mojito.

Well, it was a cool evening, outside, while it was pretty hot, inside, with zydeco music on the stereo, fancy dress costumes, hats, masks and a ton of beads.  That meant that the pork was taking a little longer to grill than anticipated. (Yeah, maybe I was imbibing a little early that night and my timing was a little off, distributing beads, or maybe the coals were responding to the cool March evening...take your pick, the result was the same...the pork was late!)

Beef, pork and sausage, slathered and ready for the grill

So, there were about twenty-five people at the affair, which my lovely wife and I had agreed to do a little later in the evening, since we didn't want to do a big sit down dinner and figured many of the guests may have already eaten something, especially by 8:30 or so when the first round of meat came off the grill. Well, I'll tell you what!  In the extra fifteen minutes it took to cut and finish grilling and seasoning the seven pounds of boneless pork ribs, five pounds of pre-cut boneless beef and four pounds of spicy, sliced sausage, grilled and dipped in Grandville's, disappeared like it was a carcass dragged away by ravenous, wild creatures of the night, baying at the moon!  Wasn't but another twenty minutes and the pork bowl was nothin' but finger lickin's to sop cornbread with.

Thing about this Grandville's BBQ Sauce, that they call a jam, it has a mellow flavor, so it doesn't overpower whatever meat you're using.  Sugar's low, so you can baste with it or dip with it. The spice comes in as an afterthought and the pieces of fruit and vegetables, finely chopped, not quite pureed, offer a richer texture and just a little twang to your bite.  Kind of like a...jam.

Maybe it was the night.  Maybe my well-healed and well-mannered company had forgotten to eat that day. Maybe it was my oh-so-exquisite skills at the helm of the grill.  Maybe it was the jam.

Nah...couldn't have been the jam...could it?

 

An Honor And A Privilege

As you may already be able to tell, I'm a big fan of spreading the joy of barbecue, and to do that, I write a lot of articles and posts and comments, and join a lot of different barbecue groups and forums around the country, even Internationally, so that I can stay connected and communicate with as many lovers of barbecue as I can.

While doing that recently, I was asked to moderate a new subgroup of Gourmet Movement on LinkedIn, by the owner of the group, Matthias (Tesi) Baur, called Gourmet BBQ and of course, leaped at the opportunity!

My vision for the site is to create a community of cross-cultural food lovers, sharing experiences from around the world, whether that be in the form of different regional styles of barbecue within the United States, from Maine to Hawaii or Florida to Alaska; International styles from Asia Pacific to Latin America to Europe; different types of grilling, like direct and indirect, plank and smoking; recipes from around the world, whether it's Australian shrimp, Brazilian churrascaria, Mongolian beef, a Jack Daniels Competition throw-down, or appetizers and veggies; event promotion, local or International, touring chefs, blog promotion, site and article promotion, companion products, grills, accessories, spices, rubs and sauces.

To me, barbecue represents a lot more than cooking outdoors.  For those that are good at it, it brings a sense of pride, from which radiates goodness, sharing, community, honor and integrity.  I don't expect everyone to feel that way, but that's how I feel and I want others to experience that.

So, if you're on LinkedIn and you are in some way, shape or form, involved in the cooking field, food and beverage industry, wine and beer distribution, spice/rub/sauce business, accessory distribution, restaurant business, are a competition pit master or are just a back yard griller or foodie, I'd like you to join me and help me create my vision.

Go to LinkedIn Groups and search for Gourmet BBQ.  I hope to see you there.

How To Barbecue Cheap Cuts (Part II) - Mustard Beef

While it seems like most of the country is either being deluged with rain or buried in snow drifts, out here in Northern California, we've been camped out under blue skies and temperatures in the seventies, so, it seems we're either in for an early Spring or a nasty surprise is waiting for us.

In any event, weather like this turns my thoughts back to barbecue and reminds me that I owe you the second part of my How To BBQ Cheap Cuts and get your mouths watering, dreaming of sunshine and the aroma of grilling meat in the back yard!

Another one of my favorites is a recipe that that my wife's father picked up from his Norwegian heritage.  He gave me the recipe...got to be fifteen years ago, but whenever I serve it to him, he's always in shock, because he could never get his to turn out this good!

The cut we're talking about today is London Broil, one of the biggest, cheap cuts you can get at your local butcher or meat counter. Whenever I get it, the butcher already knows what I'm going to do, because I turned him onto it a few years back, and he thanks me for that, every time I get it from him.

People don't generally like London Broil because they treat it like brisket and think they need to stew it to make it tender or smother it it something to give it flavor, like liver and onions.  I'm here to tell you, that just ain't my style, and if you follow this simple recipe, you'll be amazed at how you can make a tough, cheap slab of stew meat, taste like a sirloin steak!

The preparation with charcoal is the same as always with beef: one kettle of coals, spread in the middle of the grill, for cooking over direct heat.

The preparation of the meat, however, is a little unusual, but give it a try, anyway!  As always, I figure on about half a pound of meat per person, so get a London Broil that's appropriate to the size of the gathering.  For me, it's more in the thickness of the cut than the overall weight.  The thicker, the better!  London Broil doesn't require any trimming, so leave that small fatty part on the end.  Remember, fat adds flavor.

Ingredients wise, all you need is some French's Mustard and some sea salt.  By the way, did you know that there are over 4,400 different types of mustard available out there?  There's even a mustard museum in Wisconsin!  Mustard seeds, as a rule, aren't actually spicy.  It's the addition of liquid, usually water and vinegar, that releases the flavor.  Mustard isn't really that yellow, either.  It gets it's color from the spice Turmeric, thought up and added by George French in 1904.  While we're on the subject, if you add a little white wine to it, it's Dijon mustard; over 700 million pounds of mustard are consumed worldwide, each year, and 90% of all mustard seeds are grown in Canada.

But, I digress.  For this meal, all you need is some French's Mustard, known as American Mustard to the rest of the world.  You can experiment with some other kinds, but the consistency of French's works great. Coat your your slab of meat generously with the mustard on the top and sides, then pour a goodly amount of coarse sea salt over the mustard, until the whole thing is covered.  Flip it over and do the same.  I usually like to do this while the coals are heating up, meaning about twenty minutes before it hits the grill.

When the coals are ready, spread them in the middle of your grill, and bring the heat and grilling surface close together, around four to six inches apart.  The original recipe, from before barbecue grills existed, involved throwing the meat directly onto the coals, but we're not quite that Viking!  Place the meat on the grill, directly over the coals and let it stand for about ten minutes.

When it's time to flip it over, you'll notice that the mustard and the salt have formed a crust, which breaks off when you use your tongs to flip the meat.  Lay the meat back down, over the crusty mix that has fallen off, and give it another ten minutes.  Don't go longer, and don't cut into it to see if it's done.  Just trust me!

After you take it off the grill, let it rest on a cutting board, preferably with a blood groove around the edge, and let it rest for about five minutes.  Then, slice into half inch wide strips on the diagonal with a long blade and what you've got is a beautiful, medium rare, thin sliced London Broil, doing it's best impression of your local steak house's sirloin.

All of the juices were sealed in by the coating, so it's going to "bleed" a little when you slice it, but just pour that back over the top, serve it with your favorite sides and a nice Rioja and you've got a steak dinner on a Wednesday night. Eat it all, when it's still hot, because the meat firms up as it cools, turning it back into stew meat, come tomorrow's leftovers.